Government

COLUMBIA – One member of the county’s legislative delegation wasted little time Wednesday in endorsing a House proposal to raise the state’s gas tax by 10 cents over five years to fix the Palmetto State’s decaying roads.
“South Carolinians have demanded state government fix our dangerous roads,” said House Speaker Jay Lucas (R-65), who represents part of Lancaster County.

U.S. House District 5 Rep. Mick Mulvaney’s nomination as President-elect Donald Trump’s White House budget director hit a snag Wednesday after the New York Times and other national news outlets reported he failed to pay more than $15,000 in payroll taxes for a household employee.
Mulvaney, of Indian Land, revealed the issue himself in a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Budget Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing Jan. 24, the New York Times said.

COLUMBIA – Just as it did last year, the General Assembly begins its 2017 session this week determined to fix the state’s crumbling roads and bridges, but flailing about over how to pay for the job.
At a roundtable discussion Thursday sponsored by the S.C. Press Association, state House and Senate members discussed competing proposals for financing road repairs. Most involved some kind of increase in the state’s gasoline tax to provide a sustained, long-term funding source.

KERSHAW – After an emergency at Thanksgiving, the town of Kershaw has changed its personnel policy so that employees called into work on holidays automatically receive overtime pay for those hours.
Until now, overtime pay on holidays was not clearly spelled out in the town’s employee handbook.
“We had one employee complaint about a similar situation on July 4, but I didn’t fully understand it,” said Administrator Mitch Lucas. “This Thanksgiving stuff really opened my eyes.”

Van Richardson has been appointed the next chief magistrate of Lancaster County by Sens. Greg Gregory and Vincent Sheheen.
Richardson, a Lancaster county native, has served as a Lancaster County magistrate for 13 years. He will replace Judge Jackie Pope, who retired Dec. 31 after holding the chief magistrate’s position since 1999.

HEATH SPRINGS – Town council voted 4-0 Tuesday night to partner with Lancaster County to equally split the hospitality tax generated in Heath Springs.
Mayor Ann Taylor was not at the meeting.
Beginning Jan. 1, the hospitality tax will be applied to prepared food, beverage and alcohol sales in bars, restaurants, convenience stores with grills and other establishments in the Heath Springs corporate town limits.

The Lancaster City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to borrow $3.6 million from a state pollution-control fund to pay for one phase of the sewer improvements mandated by the city’s federal consent order.
City Finance Director James Absher said the city will get an additional $1 million from the fund that does not have to be repaid. The interest rate on the loan is 1 percent, he said, and the city will repay the money over 10 years in quarterly payments of about $35,000, beginning when the sewer work is finished in about a year.

Capt. Scott Grant wasn’t surprised to be named interim police chief at Tuesday night’s Lancaster City Council meeting.
But he was shocked when retiring Chief Harlean Carter told council members that Grant had not only her endorsement for the top job, but that of the police department’s rank and file as well.
“That really hit home and made me stop and think,” said Grant, 51. “I didn’t know any of that was going to happen and didn’t expect it. To have that level of support is just overwhelming.”

Multiple news outlets reported late Friday that President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Rep. Mick Mulvaney to head the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Mulvaney, the 5th District Republican from Indian Land, met with Trump in New York on Dec. 5 but would not say what they discussed.
McClatchy Newspapers was the first outlet to break the news of Mulvaney’s selection, citing a senior transition official with knowledge of the appointment but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Lancaster County officials say they hope to have at least basic recycling and trash-disposal services operating at the new Indian Land convenience center by Dec. 31.
But they have a contingency plan for local residents to continue using Mecklenburg County’s Foxhole for recycling and household waste should the plan fall through.
News of the plans came as some residents worried that their county-provided access stickers to the Foxhole would expire at the end of the year with the new Indian Land site still uncompleted.